Monday, January 19, 2015

Tone and Wave's ska favorites of 2014

There were so many good ska releases this year I had to leave a lot of them out. I had so many in the end that I did two podcasts - The Morning Edition for the punk/new wave/mod stuff and The Evening Edition for the slower/reggae/rocksteady stuff.

The Morning Edition
The Talks - Don't Look Behind You
Heavyball - Black Eye Friday
Rude Boy George - The Metro
2 Rude - Rude Boy Can't Get No Bail
Briatore - Skankin' Tonight
Rifffs - Tommy Twister
Rancid - Everybody's Sufferin'
Cabstars - Ends in Goodbye
Amphetameanies - Good One Go
Beat Brigade - Another Cause
Bruce Lee Band - AGH!!!
Skabrot - Alternatives
Max & the Invaders - Running on Fumes
Planet Smashers - Scientific Explanation
Strange Tenants - I Don't Want to Fight Your War
Keystone Ska Exchange - Nancy Says
The Kubricks - Self Help Wannabe
Skaos - Cool Cat
The Talks - Hacks
Buster Shuffle - Devon

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The Evening Edition
Bluebeaters - Catch That Teardrop
The Dodgy Few - The Wild Bunch
Zack Keeman - One Smile
Targarians - Latin Goes Ska
Mighty Fishers - Give Me Some
Deals Gone Bad - Sweet Morning
Ska Four Ensemble - Precipitous Cliff
Upsessions & Lee 'Scratch' Perry - Millicent Go Big Up Your Waist
Ziggy Marley - Give It Away
Ali Campbell - Cyber Bully Boys
Alpheus - Stand Up
New York Ska Jazz Ensemble - Moving On
The Fabulous Lolo - Right the Wrong
Skamanians - Ghosts in the Park
Delirians - Get Up
Snails - Liberty Street Lights
Jaya the Cat - Unconditional Love
Many Loves Ska Band - Ipse Dixie
Ska Vendors - All Without You
Joe Cang - Long Time Dead

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*NOTE:
A lot of other things were cut for no other reason than I felt like it didn't flow with the rest of the songs.
Supertonic Sound Club's "Scheherazade" was cut because I find Dave Barker's vocals a bit grating.
The Dualers were cut because I couldn't pick one song that really stood out. "Back to Paradise" is a great album beginning to end.
I really like the Pisdicables debut but it didn't really fit in with the other songs. 
Neville Staples' album was disappointing. Chock full of cover versions of songs that have already been covered too many times. The only thing that would have made it worse would've been adding Israelites and Wooly Bully to the list. How many covers of Johnny Too Bad are out there?
Rebelution just isn't my cup of tea. Neither is the Skints or any other band that uses hip-hop or rap to try to attract an audience. It's been done. It's over done.
The 80s Canadian band Dub Rifles only released 2 EPs in their career but in 2014 they released all of their recordings No Town, No Country. I didn't include them for the same reason I never posted the EPs - they're good but they don't really stand out. They're easy to forget.
  
Some bands I just forgot to include.

Roy Ellis released a great single, The Autonomads, T-Killas, The Interrupters,  I never even got the Yellow Cap album, and I just realized that I didn't include the Buster's Supersonic Eskalator.

There were a lot of non-ska band with notable ska songs released in 2014. I only included one - Joe Cang's Long Time Dead, but I cut a few more because, although I appreciate it when artists foray into the ska/reggae realm, the focus of this post it to bring awareness to actual ska bands. I cut The Iscariots - Follow You Down , Santana's cover of Iron, Lion, Zion (feat. Ziggy Marley), and, do you remember the grunge band Cracker? They released an album called "Berkeley to Bakersfield" in 2014 and it had a ska (ska-ish) song called "March of the Billionaires".

There are a couple things that technically should not have made the cut. Although Amphetameanies "Good One Go" was released on their 2014 album "Last Chance Bordello" it was released a few years back as a single. And the Kubricks' "Self Help Wannabe" was actually released in 2013 but it didn't come to my attention until 2014 and it's really good. It doesn't deserve to be overlooked for another year.




Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Mix Blood - Skaville LP (1980)

This is one of those great 2 Tone era records that you never heard before.

This LP features both tracks from the single. On the single the title track was erroneously called "Toot Last Train to Skaville". The b-side for the single is Move and Move.
  

1 Hoot Last Train to Skaville
2 Natural Man
3 Let Me be the One
4 Move and Move
5 Love's Gone by
6 Let's Dance Again
7 Give a Little Praise
8 On the Road
9 Reggae Revolution
10 Love's Gone Saxxy

"Hoot Last Train to Skaville"

"Let's Dance Again" (ska cover of Chubby Checker's "Let's Twist Again")

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Saturday, January 10, 2015

AK 47s - Don't Call Me Vanilla (1991)

1 Downward Spiral
2 Bastard Restart
3 One Hand
Spirit Of Resistance
5 Tiocfaidh Ar La
6 Chillin'
7 God's Man
8 Cop Cars
9 Tottenham Three
10 Tottenham Three (dub)

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Nuclear Device

French ska-punk band from Le Mans.


45 Révolutions Par Minute 12" (1985)

A1 - Arriba Espana
A2 - Abajo La Dictadura
B1 - Dicta-Dub
B2 - Corruzione


Tonnerre a la Lunne LP (1986)
1 Servitude Nationale
Aguila De Ciudad
Habib Grimzi
El Gran Corrido
Negritude
Arriba Espana (Disco Remix)
Abajo La Dictadur


 Desperados 7" (1987)
A - Desperados
B - Coscorron Steady Beat


Western Electric LP (1987)
1 Deprisa
2 N°5446
3 Partisans
4 La Roue S'Arrête
5 Frontière
6 Pas De Quartier
7 Desperados
8 Prétoria + Dub
9 Guantanamera
10 Lettre De Fusillés


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Oddly Enough - Shaky Ground 7" (1985)

I don't know why this record is always labeled as a ska record. The b-side is a cover of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" with some timbales and saxophone but it's not ska. Neither is the a-side. 

This record comes up for sale on eBay quite often and it rarely goes for cheap. Save your money and download it.

A - Shaky Ground
B - Blowin' in the Wind

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